This morning I stumbled (almost literally) across the object in the attached photograph. It is an iron pipe connecting two paint cans filled with cement. As it turns out, the workers (at least six of whom share a single room) in a nearby building crafted this inventive makeshift barbell out of what anyone else would have seen as junk. I doubt whether they would have done so on a more generous income. And I have to wonder how many affluent folk possess such initiative, inventiveness and downright gumption.
As I become more embroiled in educational technologies, there is a nagging awareness at the back of my mind that all this fancy stuff can detract from the true quality of what we do. Much as a laud the true potential of ICT for education, I am painfully aware of the fact that, misinterpreted, these frills can easily cover up a vacuum of learning – a danger that is even more acute in emerging contexts, where the nature of quality has not necessarily been defined yet.
Not only that, but there is the danger that the deluge of resources we have access to online today can make us, at best, undiscerning, creatively blunt and at worst just plain lazy.
As I become more embroiled in educational technologies, there is a nagging awareness at the back of my mind that all this fancy stuff can detract from the true quality of what we do. Much as a laud the true potential of ICT for education, I am painfully aware of the fact that, misinterpreted, these frills can easily cover up a vacuum of learning – a danger that is even more acute in emerging contexts, where the nature of quality has not necessarily been defined yet.
Not only that, but there is the danger that the deluge of resources we have access to online today can make us, at best, undiscerning, creatively blunt and at worst just plain lazy.
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